Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called late Sunday for a delay in further consideration of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh after a second woman accused him of sexual misconduct.

“I am writing to request an immediate postponement of any further proceedings related to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh,” Feinstein (Calif.) wrote in a letter to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee’s chairman.

Her letter came after the New Yorker magazine reported that Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale University, said he exposed himself at a party when they were both first-year students.

Ramirez, who told the magazine that they both had been drinking at the time of the incident, acknowledged some gaps in her memory but said she remembered another student shouting Kavanaugh’s name.

“I would think an F.B.I. investigation would be warranted,” Ramirez said.

In a statement issued by the White House, Kavanaugh denied the accusation and called it “a smear, plain and simple.”

“I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name — and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building — against these last-minute allegations,” he said in the statement.

The new accusation further roiled Kavanaugh’s nomination hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee had agreed to allow Christine Blasey Ford to testify Thursday about her claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.

In her letter, Feinstein asked “that the newest allegations of sexual misconduct be referred to the FBI for investigation, and that you join our request for the White House to direct the FBI to investigate the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford as well as these new claims.”

Grassley did not immediately respond to Feinstein’s call for a delay. Spokesman Taylor Foy said the majority Republican committee staff learned about Ramirez’s allegations from Sunday evening’s New Yorker article. Neither Ramirez nor her attorney have contacted the chairman’s office, Foy said, adding Democrats never informed the GOP staff of these allegations.

“It increasingly appears that they are more interested in a political takedown than pursuing allegations through a bipartisan and professional investigative process,” Foy said in a statement. “Of course, we will attempt to evaluate these new claims.”

Republicans had agreed to ­delay a committee vote on ­Kavanaugh’s confirmation until after the hearing with Ford took place, but many members of the GOP have said they are eager to move on with the process. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spoke confidently Friday, telling a group of conservative activists, “In the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court.”

Before Ramirez’s allegation was made public, some Republican senators indicated that they were unlikely to waver in their support for Kavanaugh.

“What am I supposed to do, go and ruin this guy’s life based on an accusation?” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party in the early 1980s would be too thin to hold up in court, Graham said. “I don’t know when it happened, I don’t know where it happened, and everybody named in regard to being there said it didn’t happen. I’m just being honest: Unless there’s something more, no, I’m not going to ruin Judge Kavanaugh’s life over this.”

Democrats insisted Sunday that Kavanaugh’s denials were not believable and that a public appearance would do little to sway their support for Ford.

“There are so many indications of his own lack of credibility,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said of Kavanaugh on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Her concerns about Kavanaugh’s “very ideological agenda” and “inability to be fair,” she said, predate Ford’s allegations.

The New Yorker reported that at least four Democratic senators were aware of Ramirez’s account and at least two had begun investigating it.

A spokesman for Feinstein said Sunday night that “we didn’t receive details of this allegation.”

The magazine described an incident in which a male student exposed himself to Ramirez during a party. She acknowledged lapses in her memory of the episode but said she remembered Kavanaugh standing to her right and laughing while he pulled up his pants, according to the magazine.

Ramirez declined to speak to a Washington Post reporter who visited her Colorado home last Tuesday and turned down follow-up requests by text.

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the administration “stands firmly behind Judge Kavanaugh” and described Ramirez’s claim as “uncorroborated” and part of a “coordinated smear campaign” by Democrats.

The claim “is wholly inconsistent with what many women and men who knew Judge Kavanaugh at the time in college say,” she said.

A senior White House official also said the president wants to stick with Kavanaugh and believes people are out to smear him.

Ramirez’s allegation surfaced as attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents adult-film star Stormy Daniels, claimed on Twitter that he has a client with information about misconduct by Kavanaugh in high school. An aide to Grassley confirmed that the committee was reaching out to Avenatti for more information.

“The three ring circus Democrats have demanded,” Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for McConnell, wrote in a tweet of Avenatti’s emergence in the nomination fight.

Ford’s attorneys said Sunday that they agreed to the hearing despite the committee’s refusal to let her speak after Kavanaugh’s testimony, interview other people she identified as present at the party where the alleged assault took place, or ask the FBI to look into her allegations in advance of her appearance. Senate Democratic leaders sent a letter to President Trump on Sunday urging him to direct the FBI to conduct an investigation into Ford’s claims, arguing it would take only a few days.

Ford’s lawyers also said they had not been told whether the Republican senators on the committee would themselves ask Ford questions or defer to staff or an independent lawyer to question her. It is customary that senators ask their own questions during public hearings. But there is a potential political risk if the all-male, all-white roster of Republicans on the panel — few of whom have any experience questioning sexual assault victims — grills Ford in a way that reminds viewers of 1991, when Anita Hill told the panel that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had repeatedly sexually harassed her. Thomas was confirmed.

“The Anita Hill hearing was a disaster, but they did have an FBI investigation; they did have other witnesses,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” charging that Republican senators had “predetermined the outcome” and set up a “he said, she said” showdown around Ford’s allegations.

“The Senate, Congress, failed the test in 1991,” Murray continued. “How the Senate handles this, and the Senate Republicans handle this, will be a test of this time, in 2018, in the ‘Me Too’ movement, can we do better? And I feel we are failing that if we don’t do it correctly.”

Ford alleges that Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed, drunkenly groped her, tried to take off her clothes and put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. Ford said a friend of Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, was in the room — but neither he nor others who she said were at the party have claimed any knowledge or memory of the incident, although at least one said she believes Ford’s allegations.

Ford told The Post one person at the party was a boy named “PJ.” Patrick J. Smyth, a friend of Kavanaugh who signed a letter of support for his nomination, has told the Judiciary Committee that he has no knowledge of the party and has never witnessed Kavanaugh behave improperly toward women, according to a letter from Smyth’s attorney that the committee made public on Sunday. Through his lawyer, Smyth declined to comment Sunday.

Ford said her friend Leland Keyser also was at the party. In an email to the committee, an attorney for Keyser wrote that she “does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present.” In a brief interview with The Washington Post, Keyser said she did not recall the party but believed Ford’s account.

Last week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said that if Democrats gain control of Congress in the midterm elections, they will continue to investigate Ford’s allegations. When asked Sunday if she agreed with the idea, Hirono noted that Maryland — the state in which Ford alleges the assault took place — has lifted the statute of limitations on criminal prosecutions of most forms of sexual abuse, adding that “there may be an investigation along those lines.”

But Republicans have argued that more FBI scrutiny would be superfluous.

“Their role in this case is not to determine who is telling the truth,” Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) said Sunday on “Meet the Press.” “I hope that we will get to the truth” during the Judiciary Committee hearing, he added.

Trump also has backed the hearing, but he has questioned Ford’s credibility, suggesting in a tweet last week that if the alleged assault was “as bad as she says,” she would have filed charges at the time.

That tweet rankled at least one key swing vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who said last week that she was “appalled” by Trump’s tweet.

The fate of Kavanaugh’s nomination is likely to hinge on Democratic and Republican senators such as Collins whose votes are uncertain.

“If one Republican senator should decide that Dr. Ford’s allegations, assertions, are true and that they are serious, it could make a big difference,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”

Meanwhile, Republicans said they hoped that Trump would not weigh in with any more tweets.

“I would advise the president to let us handle this,” Graham said Sunday.

Karoun DemirjianKaroun Demirjian is a congressional reporter covering national security, including defense, foreign policy, intelligence and matters concerning the judiciary. She was previously a correspondent based in The Post's bureau in Moscow. Follow

Amy GardnerAmy Gardner joined The Washington Post in 2005. She has worked stints in the Virginia suburbs, covered the 2010 midterms and the tea party revolution, and covered the Republican presidential nominating contest in 2011-2012. She was a politics editor for five years and returned to reporting in 2018. Follow

Seung Min KimSeung Min Kim is a White House reporter for The Washington Post, covering the Trump administration through the lens of Capitol Hill. Before joining The Washington Post in 2018, she spent more than eight years at Politico, primarily covering the Senate and immigration policy. Follow